Game Review

Kirby: Triple Deluxe Review

Kirby, Nintendo’s pink puffball of concentrated cuteness, arrives on 3DS with a big bumper of a package, promising a trifecta of portable happiness. And it’s sure tough to not smile at the game’s chirpy demeanor and cheery world as the little guy floats and bops his way along his first 3DS adventure. But for a mascot often attached to experimental gameplay, Kirby Triple Deluxe is conservative in its construction and seldom veers far from its comfort zone.

Triple Deluxe’s trident pokes in three ways with varying force. Story Mode is the clear star here, but the two extra games — Kirby Fighters and Dedede’s Drum Dash — are each strong enough to stand as an eShop download. Story Mode is a platforming jaunt cut from the same mischievous cloth as Kirby’s side-scrolling adventures have been since 1992. Kirby wakes to find his home on Popstar lifted up into the clouds by massive vines, the origin of which he hasn’t the faintest clue. Kirby heads to Dedede’s also-vined castle and watches as new foe Taranza carries the blundering King Dedede off to a new land in the sky. That land is Floralia, where Kirby sets off on a quest to save his despot.

Story Mode doesn’t seem particularly interested in re-inventing the puffball — its fundamentals are sound and its mechanics time-tested — but instead on building a top-notch Kirby platformer. On one hand, Triple Deluxe’s adventure is many nice things: elegant, charming, and delightful to play. HAL Laboratory has done a bang-up job forging a rock-solid, consistent journey on which to take new players. But on the other, it is simplistic, a touch too familiar, and not always interesting to those who may have seen this all before.

Kirby’s flavor of platforming is pretty straightforward: run, jump, float, and inhale all manner of objects and baddies in the name of reaching the end of the stage. Hidden around each stage is a number of Sun Stones for Kirby to nab. While not all must be found, a certain number per world — which usually comes in at a little over half of them —are required to unlock the boss stage. Collecting all Sun Stones in a world unlocks a special stage in each. The Sun Stones aren’t always particularly well hidden, with many able to be found by poking around just a tad.

Key Chains are strewn about as well. These have no impact on progress, but are fun to collect as each one is a character from Kirby’s sprite games. Up to five Key Chains can be bought with Play Coins between stages; once five are bought, another stage has to be cleared to be able to buy more. Rare ones are hidden in more devious spots, but, like the Sun Stones, moderate prying should reveal their locations.

Intact is Kirby’s signature ability to swipe the attributes of his foes, with a total of 24 copy abilities at his disposal. Most have done the rounds already, like the Sword or Beam powers, and new ones like the Beetle or Archer fit right in to his repertoire with specific environmental puzzles tailored to them.

Story Mode does little flashy in the way of mechanics, with its big gimmick being the lack of big gimmicks. Sure, there are some novel elements, but they come off as rather pointless and worn — tilting the 3DS to move a cart is no shocker, and is in fact a mechanic that Kirby himself built an entire game around years ago. Jumping between the foreground and background to solve puzzles and fight enemies is an organic extension of — and, dare we say, required justification for — the 3DS’s auto-stereoscopic display, but brings nothing of grandeur to the table. Friends and complete strangers can get in on the action by way of StreetPass, offering up a helpful health item to redeem later at the touch of the bottom screen — but if there are none around, the rogue Waddle Dee from Kirby's Return to Dream Land will chuck some help anyway.

That leaves the new Hypernova ability, force-fed to Kirby at curiously opportune times, which paints him a neat rainbow chrome and allows him to inhale or influence creatures and objects of a screen-filling size. There’s a nice friction associated with going Hypernova as Kirby then has the ability to rip up the world in a way never really possible. The “puzzles” that use it only have the one solution, though, and the ability only appears when required. There’s no rushing around all Hypernova-like just for kicks, so it loses some of its luster as the game progresses.

Floralia’s six floating islands don’t initially pose much of a challenge, offering a relaxing — if simplistic — platformer filled with foes and abilities both new and old to the franchise to breeze through. The game’s gentle nature will play well with its intended audience of younger players, but those well-versed in platformers will find little in the first half to be of any significant threat. The heat is gradual, almost unnoticeable, until revealing itself in the latter half. Perhaps not all of the Sun Stones were found, or maybe Kirby didn’t quite clear that obstacle as intended. Before you know it, you’re relying on that StreetPassed health item you’re holding to get through a couple of boss fights in quick succession. Challenge sneaks up on you in a way that always feels manageable, as if to kick off the training wheels and trust that you know what you’re doing. Even though Story Mode does eventually demand quicker reflexes, not much thought at all is required to progress. The game is nice enough to give you the exact tool needed to progress at the moment, and the needed Sun Stones are seldom too far off the beaten path. Completionists will find more challenge in acquiring all of them, but that isn’t saying much.

Triple Deluxe’s main adventure has something of an identity crisis. The game is pretty, but its rounded edges are no match for the tactile charm of Kirby’s Epic Yarn or powerful simplicity of the sprite adventures. The solo tour is enjoyable, but feels lonely in the wake of Return to Dream Land. Its attempts to do something new are often not new at all, or underwhelming in their predictability. Story Mode is likely not what Triple Deluxe will be remembered for, no matter how pleasant it may be.

Multiplayer mode Kirby Fighters reveals itself to be the true draw of Triple Deluxe, allowing up to four players to smash the cute out of each other in an arena-based brawler. It’s a simplified Super Smash Bros, really: Players pick one of 10 copy abilities for their Kirby to take into local multiplayer battle, and duke it out on themed stages, with the occasional item thrown into the mix. The controls are the same as in Story Mode, which means that combat commands come down to one button and a directional input. Getting the proper timing down can be hokey at first, but in the right hands Kirby can slay. Solo players can go up a traditional ladder with increasingly difficult opponents, and the title supports Download Play for multiplayer bouts.

Dedede’s Drum Dash is a rhythm/score game where you bounce the blue penguin king through a hazardous stretch of drums, collecting coins and smacking a tambourine to the beat along the way. Each of the three stages is two minutes long and the challenge ramps up quite drastically: Where the first track is a nice and gentle introduction to the mechanics, soon enough Dedede is dealing with moving and destructible drums off which to bounce, as well as mobile enemies and a quicker tempo. Taking too long, bopping into too many enemies, or landing in the void will end the run.

At first blush it appears that the designers have skimped in this mode a bit with only three stages to best, but these stages are no pushovers: completing them is one thing, but netting gold medals and completing each’s four achievements will require plenty of patience and a keen sense of rhythm. But primarily patience, as they can be downright devious in the deeper ends. Nabbing golds in all three will unlock an Extra stage that should keep the beat going for a while.

Dedede’s Drum Dash is the weakest link in the chain, but still serves as a pleasant diversion from the rest of the game and challenges an entirely different set of skills. It will likely drive you up a wall as you try to time your bounces to the beat, collect coins, and avoid members of the franchise rogue’s gallery.

While the box may say “triple”, conquering the seven-ish-hour Story Mode opens up two new ways to play. The Arena’s boss rush pits Kirby against a string of the game’s big bads, in case you haven’t had enough of them already from the campaign. Dedede’s Tour is a time trial of Story Mode that swaps out Kirby for Dedede. Playing as Dedede offers an entirely different experience as it emphasizes speed and thus encourages wrecking-ball strategies with his giant hammer. Each world is done in one go and the times for these can be shared over StreetPass.

Conclusion

Kirby Triple Deluxe is a pleasant package that doesn’t push the envelope very far. The Story Mode is an elegant but conservative adventure that trades too greatly in familiarity and simplicity, the same type of neo-nostalgia that Nintendo has seen success with on the Mario side of things: it’s sure to scratch that Kirby itch — or create one for new players — but fails to move the franchise forward in any meaningful direction. However, the rest of the package holds its own quite well: Kirby Fighters is a great time-sink sure to provoke new rivalries among friends, and the post-game content offers a second competitive wind to the adventure. Come for the cute platforming, stay for the battle royale.

The main game sounds solid and enjoyable, but doesn't do enough new things and the real draw of the game is the multiplayer side-game. In this case it's Kirby Fighters playing the Coin Rush of Triple Deluxe.

I can certainly see myself enjoying Kirby Fighters, unfortunately I'm incompetent when it comes to rhythm games so I doubt I'll be pouring plenty of play time into Dedede's Drum Dash.

Personally I'm absolutely fine with this. I don't overly care about innovation when it comes to platformers, I just want to enjoy myself. Yoshi's New Island was certainly a disappointment, let's hope Kirby: Triple Deluxe is better!

A absolute must buy for me I've been in love with Kirby since Super Star and 64 and Return To Dreamland was just to perfect shame the multi player adventure isn't returning but hopefully we'll see it again

What's with all of these super-conservative games Nintendo's been making? NSMB2, 3D World, MK7, Mario Tennis, Yoshi's New Island, all the remakes, and now this too. Every game promises to do something new, but it does just that one new thing and nothing else. I'd rather they try and fail than not try at all.

If it's "more of the same" then count me in! I never got to ay Kirby's Epic Yarn or even Return to Dreamland, so the last traditional Kirby title I've played was Super Star Ultra. I'm really long overdue for some Kirby goodness.

This review's main gripe seemed to be how safe it is, so for me this sounds like a 9 rather than a 7! I'm getting this the moment it goes live on the eShop!

That's rather disappointing in light of return to dreamland. Specially because the 3ds literally has the capability to do return to dreamland. It just feels so much like they're putting out easy games without even much of a challenge mode. Trying to platinum return to dreamland's copy ability challenges was brutal but not required for progress so it struck a good balance. Between hard mode story and copy challenges return to dreamland offed a lot to advanced players.

It just seems like in light of yoshi and kirby now nintendo isn't even offering the option of a challenge.

It's disappointing that this game does nothing new, really kills my excitement for the game. I'll probably still get it, but I have a feeling this might be my breaking point as far as overly safe sequels with Kirby, I'd like to see the next one do something more original.

Really? I'm surprised, considering NL sounded far more enthusiastic about this game earlier this year when it released in Japan. I wonder what changed? Who would've thought NL would like Mario Golf more than Kirby?

I'm going to enjoy this game immensely, regardless. The only question for me is if this will become a favorite. This review makes it seem like it won't be, but I might think differently, which is why I'm still getting the game.

I really like that I can play as King Dedede after beating the game, but wouldn't that be a spoiler?

@DarkCoolEdge Fire Emblem could have been better for me if it was better balanced (No DLC and closed like the earlier ones were). A Link Between Worlds could have been better if the Hero Quest was how it started. (1 decent puzzle per dungeon is not enough and now I have played it then it is spoilt no interest in playing that yet).

Trading in infamous second son for this game. At least there's more things to do and have a replayable value than second son which is the weakest in the series with crap like paper trails and it garbage rewards.

7/10 is a bit harsh. I get it's not some really revolutionary entry in the series, but surely being extremely fun and well-constructed with a well-done difficulty gradient and two strong game modes outside of the main adventure counts for something.

I just want a fun, traditional Kirby adventure, and I expect it will deliver in spades.

The last Kirby game I liked and played was Superstar Ultra. Although the main game was easy, it was challenging to get all the treasure. Sometimes there were traps that would lock away the treasure, or not make it visible for the entire level.

Is it at least challenging to collect treasures or key chains in this game?

New levels, abilities, interaction between the foreground and background to a larger extent than many other games in the genre, and some new modes aren't enough? It's ridiculous that even with a lot of new content, a game can still be criticized just because it didn't reinvent the series.

Not so much the score as it is the actual content of the review that's disappointing.

And for the people who are saying, "but the Mario games play it safe too", I don't think highly of them, either. I was never a fan of "2D Mario and Donkey Kong are back!", and nor was I a big fan of the "3D World" games with a fixed camera. I want a completely free roaming environment in actual 3D environments, I want to see that for Kirby too.

@unrandomsam So? I didn't mention that game (mostly because I never played it) at all. My complaint about the content of the review highlighting a few issues like the game not pushing the series forward with innovation and downplaying many of the game's strengths isn't just limited to this one review, it was more of a general statement.

@Ralizah I guess that's how reviews work. If it doesn't do anything different compared to others, then its just being safe. But if it does something new and if it isn't good, its bad. Other M and Mass Attack are fine examples of this.

Jon, you're so handsome. I mean: Good review! A "7" is a positive score, people! I do wish there were more Drum levels, but as a bonus side game, I guess that's hard to complain about. Will be considering this once I exhaust my time with Mario Golf...

still excited for this.....do not care if it is much of a challenge. i have had enough of that for right now. i want something a little easier to play. i am not all that great at platformers anyway. But i do love me some Kirby. I have not played a kirby game since super star ultra so this will be new to me.

@Pokefanmum82 That's the whole point of Kirby games, they are suppose to be made easy to play. I didn't like Mass Attack because of its ridiculous difficulty. If it was something like Canvas Curse, then fine, but it isn't.

Seriously though, when was the last time that a kirby game was criticized for it being too easy?????

@Artwark a lot of kirby games have offered optional challenge modes. Getting platinum medals in return to dreamland required a really high level of skill. Hard mode story in most kirby games was also moderately challenging due to reduced health and limited health restores. So while the main story in all kirby games have been fairly easy, that usually wasn't all there was too it.

@Ralizah "Playing it safe" is a pretty valid criticism in a video game, actually. You're buying it to be entertained, and repeating the same thing over and over diminishes the entertainment. It's basically saying that the game is kinda boring in a way, so 7/10 is pretty appropriate.

I do want this game, but not for the £30. But the problem with leaving it to buy later is that Kirby games normally go up in price after a few months. KIrby's Adventure Wii/Return to Dream Land is now over £50 new and £40 used on Amazon, and if I leave Triple Deluxe till later who knows how much it will go up buy...

As much as I love Kirby I saw this coming. It's not meant to be difficult--it never was--therefore I don't know why so many reviews have focused in on the difficulty being so easy. I'll be picking this up later just because Mario Golf has sold me with the demo.

@MAB
I haven't touched mine in months, but that's mainly because I lose interest in handelds pretty quickly. It's like a portable game cube on the go with playing it safe inferior sequels a plenty' The 3DS is a great hand held, with a solid selection of games + mind blowing 3D and hand held VC but it aint got a thang' on the DS(lite) imo. 3DS is a 'smidge' overrated me thinks, while the Wii U is vastly underrated.

the only reason I want to play triple deluxe is because of the stereoscopic 3D effect which is ultimately the only real 'visual' innovation going on, where as everything else is recycled like Oscar the grouches trash can scraps.

I think I'll get this game soon. The mode that lets you play as Dedede sounds interesting...if only it let you play as Meta Knight! I love the two Kirby games that let you do that (not counting RtD that lets player 2-4 play as him).

Perhaps Nintendo plays it safe because the safe games often sell better anyway? New franchises often bomb miserably.

I dunno, it just seems like people criticize game companies such as Nintendo for being too safe, and these games often take a lot of undeserved criticism. Yoshi's New Island for instance...It's actually very fun and completely functional (I would know. I played it unlike a lot of those who claim it's a bad game), but it got bad reviews for being a "rehash" (Though it really isn't anything new, but it is fun, and it works.) And yet, it's often the safe games that sell best like NSMB 2 or especially Call of Duty.

@Yorumi those games don't come anyway hard as Mass Attack. Granted I've not play Return to Dreamland but that probably doesn't compare to MASS ATTACK! the Dream Land series aren't really that hard. Amazing Mirror didn't have much of difficulty either. Canvas Curse is the one that has the most replay value in a Kirby game at the very least and that what I love about that game.

@Artwark platinum medals in return to dreamland are practically in the realm of professional gamers. You need near pixel perfect precision to get one, and there's like 20 or something. It wasn't uncommon to reset a level for hours or days to get one.

Beyond that the nes game's hard mode story is pretty nasty. There's definitely been optional difficulty in kirby games, yeah the main game is typically easy, but that's not really what's being complained about.

So basically if your new to kirby this would be a good game for people new to kirby series? (o_O)

I've only played Kirby's Epic Yarn - Wii - Loved it!

So what was Kirby's Epic Yarn exactly to the kirby series? Like dumbed down version? Because I constantly hear it's supposedly easier than other kirby games & to date that is the only kirby game I have ever own/played beside's this coming friday Kirby Triple Deluxe - 3DS... I bought Kirby's Epic Yarn - Wii back then for my wii because I had never played any of the kirby games before & thought with yarn etc it would be a good game to start with in the kirby series... A little confused with this...

Basically both the Wii & 3DS version's would be good starter games for people new to kirby?

No online multiplayer... That isn't a good move in my opinion. Playing with others online expands the community, hopefully online multiplayer could be a free DLC in the future... It will never happen so I guess the wait for smash bros will be even more hectic.

@Phantom_R Mario Tennis (Camelot did that, though they also developed the highly rated Mario Golf) wasn't developed by Nintendo. Nor was Yoshi's New Island (it was developed by Arzest, which in turn had members from Artoon). Though it looks like Arzest, as a company, doesn't have much experience in development, they seem to be focusing more on outsourced duties (like model creation).

The New series for Mario were more meant to train a new team in regards to the series. The original developers aren't going to live forever and chances are having been at the helm for so long, they probably want to work on other projects. It's also problematic if the game fails spectacularly, especially with a brand like Mario and the abundance of inexperienced developers.

What's up with IGN giving Yoshi's New Island a 7.9 and Kirby TD a 6?New Island was a piece of dog poo, only reinforced by playing the original Yoshi's Island on the VC. Kirby on the other hand, while rarely ground breaking, is always enjoyable.

@Bolt_StrikeNot really. It's not like this sort of "Return of Dreamland" type of game happens very often. Most of Kirby's recent portable outings have been somewhat experimental, and many people, myself included, have wanted a portable return to the older style for a while now.

It's not like this game does nothing new. It has unprecedented interactivity between the foreground and background. It has new power-ups. It has multiple new gameplay modes. I'm objecting to this idea that there is something wrong with this game because it's not as experimental as games like Epic Yarn or Canvas Curse were. It's not meant to be, and the reviewer should take that into consideration when assigning his grade. It'd be like giving Bravely Default a lower rating because its plot and gameplay are reminiscent of older Final Fantasy games.

What I find perplexing is that NL recently posted an article praising Kirby: Triple Deluxe for returning Kirby back to his simple sucking and swallowing roots while this NL review criticizes Kirby: Triple Deluxe for the same reason.

It's a bit disappointing to see KTD not getting higher scores. I suppose it's understandable if the main game feels unmemorable. I do love the classic Kirby formula, though, so I'll pick it up. I think it hasn't quite been overused like the NSMB series has been. I was at least wishing for a 12 hour story mode. For some reason the stages looked longer than other Kirby game stages. Guess there aren't many of them....

@DestinyMan Then the best they can do is be consistent in who previews and then reviews each game. It's not that big a deal, it sounds like not many will have reconsidered a potential purchase after seeing a 7.

This is actually going to be my first Kirby game. Not a day one purchase, but certainly later this year. It looks good enough from all I have seen. It's no secret hat Nintendo has been milking their franchises since the NES era, though. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. In such a saturated market we have, it's difficult to call something truly "new".

Be lying if I said the score isn't a little disappointing. Had high hopes for both Yoshi's New Island and this and neither really delivered that killer game like pretty all of last year's big 3DS releases did. Oh well... Mario Golf it is.

@Gamer83 I think if it was reviewed by Thomas Whitehead this would have got a higher score.

(Interestingly the text of the Yoshi's Island review could have been put next to NSMB2 without me having a problem with it potentially saving me £60 in the process (I got it as a download with all the DLC straight away)).

I'm a little disheartened by so many people turning away from this game just because of a score of 7. I personally think this game will be better than that, but at the end of the day reviews are just opinions. It's when opinions become united in declaring a game bad that it probably is, but the review scores I've seen seem to imply that opinion is split to mostly positive. In that case, I'd still give the game a chance if you're interested. I still believe this game is much better than it's getting credit for.

Well, when it all comes down to it, the number is just that anyway, doesn't mean as much as the text of the review does. This definitely sounds like a fun game, and one I'll get a some point, but I'm spending a lot in May as it is with Watch Dogs for PS4 and Mario Kart 8 for Wii U. Thinking about it, I probably won't even have the time to play Mario Golf either so I'll likely skip that game as well eventhough the reviews I've read for it have been pretty damn good.

@OdnetninAges Even if 7/10 is not a bad score, many here have more than one console, that meaning many games look more interesting than this. And if you consider that this is 3 times more expensive than Child of Light, you realize that Nintendo must try harder.

"Nintendo's playing it too safe again." We got new power ups, a few new gameplay mechanics, and a handful of decent bonus modes. This is Kirby what were you expecting? It's like if somone got pissed cause the next 2d Mario didn't bring anything new to the table.

This is frustrating. If a company changes a game in a series, the whole community flips out, saying it's the most horrible abomination to ever set foot on the earth. But when they don't change anything, the review takes a nasty hit. Pick your poison, I guess. I love every single Kirby game in existence, so I'm definitely getting this the day it comes out. And I will love it.

Hmm, I don't know about this one. I hope they give us a demo. I'll definitely be waiting for Smash Bros. over this game at the very least.

On one hand, a Kirby game that's "more of the same" of such an excellent gameplay system sounds just find to me (and quite a pet peeve of mine when reviews call it a negative factor, well unless the previous games also suck, pun not intended), and Kibry Fighters and playing as Dedede in story mode sound quite fun.

On the other hand, I don't like it when platformers have the character jump between fore/background layers, the Hypernova ability does sound pretty underused (at least compared to Giant Kirby in "Return to Dreamland"), and Drum Dash sounds really boring.

Nintendolife has gotten really negative lately. Every time I make the mistake of checking the comments section for a game, I see an almost overwhelming amount of negativity and complaining.

Guess what folks? This Kirby game... IS A KIRBY GAME! I know, shocking right? Anyone who didn't see this coming is shortsighted as they come. I'm just amazed that all it takes for a game (or entire system in this case) to get a flood of negative comments is a 7/10 score, which isn't even a bad score to begin with. Had this game got one point more the comments section would be full of people talking about how great the game is going to be. The ultimate irony is that the majority of the people here are just parroting the reviewer and have most likely never even touched the game. Sad.

@OnionOverlord Yeah, that's the way it is with most games for some reason. Somewhere down the line, 8 became a magic number and anything below that is "disappointing" or "awful." Anything at or above it is "great!" or "awesome!"

"The ultimate irony is that the majority of the people here are just parroting the reviewer and have most likely never even touched the game." Also true. It seems when a game gets even a slightly negative review, we tend to just jump on the bandwagon of negativity.

Me, I kind of saw a 7 coming from the way the review read. It did not in any way deter me from getting this, however. I'm still eagerly awaiting this game, especially for the mode that lets you play as Dedede! If only it had a Meta Knight mode as well...

I remember a time when a "review" was based off of how the cover or title of a game looked lol. But in all seriousness, I think gamers these days rely to heavily on reviews to determine how we feel about a certain game. Every review is based off of pros and cons and how it performs in a number of categories, but at the end of the day they're based on opinions. Even though I respect the opinions in this review, none of the so called "cons" in this game bother me. I'm getting this Friday and I'm going for 100%! Which I'm sure is the "challenge" in this game.

On Metacritic it gets a average of 80%, wich is pretty good! This is just a semi-sequel to Kirby's Return to dreamland. It doesn't do much new, and I don't think many people will be wowed by the foreground/background hopping mechanic. It has been done before.

But it still looks like a fun little platformer with great graphics. Maybe easy, but still fun. I'll buy it.

After playing this game today for the first time, this is now my least favorite review by NL. Kirby: Triple Deluxe is an 8 at least. The game is fun, gorgeous, and bursting with charm. I'm disappointed so many have been scared off because of reviews like this and are missing out on what's another good Kirby game and maybe even a favorite. Shame!

Thanks. I don't disagree with the review itself, just the amount of people responding to it. I believe the best way is to form your own opinion rather than mimic something someone else says. That along with the fact pointed out by Gartcat. Not every game is perfect. 7 sounds quite reasonable to me.

@OnionOverlord Yeah, I understand. The review is plenty reasonable, but people getting upset just because it didn't hit the magic number isn't. I actually beat this game over the weekend and would give it more of an 8 or 9 personally so yes, it is good to form your own opinion.

@OnionOverlord I AGREE 100% OF THE WAY! Just be happy they're trying to give us a game to enjoy. I mean come on, what do you guys want from them everything you want in a game for your tastes? Well guess what?! It's not what you want, it's what "MAJORITY OF FANS WANT!" Stop bandwagoning, Buy the game, Play it & then you what?! REVIEW IT! Gosh you people are ridiculous! Have a mind of your own already! If you don't like it, keep it to yourself and let others enjoy it that enjoys it!

I think 7/10 is a good score for this game. The production values are excellent - it looks and sounds great and the controls are excellent. However, somehow it also felt a little tired - in the same way NSMB2 did. I also felt the mini-games didn't add much value. A good game, but it made me once more feel Nintendo should try something new.

I disagree so strongly with this article. In yhe ways of game sequels and if you like mario games thisbis tue NSMBU of kirby. An AWESOME follow up. The author feels its novelties aremt something new? I think cod's new tweeks arent new butbthat doesnt make it bad game as is being implied. It is more of the same but ifbwere being honest this is one of two kirby games to actually play out this way in the last 3 generations

Having played (and possessing) every Kirby DS and Wii game, I have to agree with the reviewer. The world feels hollow compared to Epic Yarn and Return to Dreamland, and the level are very uninspiring. Even the extras are a big letdown compared to Mass Attack (my favorite handheld Kirby ever), and even Super Star Ultra had very childish games, but fitted the time it was released (haven't aged well).The only I thing I found that is really an innovation from the other games, were the bosses.